Introduction
This page is a work-in-progress.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats will be recorded as they arise or are noticed.
I read recently:
- Strengths and Weaknesses are internal factors
- Opportunities and Threats are external.
Strengths
- Simple, adaptable underlying structure; it has been easy to see how unanticipated user requests can be satisfied.
- Most potential users respond quickly and positively to the basic UI ideas
- Card plug-in framework seems to mean that almost any desired functionality is possible. We also have proof-of-concept implementations of quite diverse plugins.
Weaknesses
- Browser portability problems (focusing on Firefox and Safari for now)
- Impediments of browser "same origin" restriction for Ajax calls
- eXist AtomPub implementation isn't great; maybe need to consider another?
- User interface for accessing workspace data is not very attractive, and could be easier to use. A good implementation will take some effort. Meanwhile, we can focus on presenting users with dedicated web pages that pre-load a specific workspace.
Opportunities
- Card plug-in architecture allows framework to grow in response to new requirements
- Possible framework for rapid UI development for other web applications (e.g. Simal use-case).
- Alternative, more flexible interface to faceted browsers?
Threats
- Failure to achieve stable underlying platform
- Problems with access to persistent storage (e.g. fragility of AtomPub handler)
- Failure to fully engage with end users to the extent that they will actually use the system
- Failure to package the system in a way that meets user expectations for usability; this relates to persistent storage access problems